Pickup trucks and tourniquets bound for Ukraine’s battlefield are among items stuck in a mileslong line at the border with Poland. Components to build drones to fight off Russian forces are facing weeks of delays.
Ukrainian charities and companies supplying the war-torn country’s military warn that problems are growing as Polish truck drivers show no sign of ending a border blockade that has stretched past a month. The Polish protesters argue that their livelihoods are at stake after the European Union relaxed some transport rules and Ukrainian truckers undercut their business.
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“This is very puzzling to me, even hard to believe because everybody knows — those who order, those who expedite and those who do the transport — that aid for the military passes through without having to wait at all,” said Waldemar Jaszczur, a protest organizer.
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About 200 pickup trucks needed to transport ammunition and evacuate the wounded from the front line are blocked at the border because “deliveries have practically stopped,” said Ivan Poberzhniak, head of procurement and logistics for Come Back Alive, Ukraine’s largest charitable organization providing the military with equipment.
The pickup trucks are easy targets for Russia, so it’s impossible to deliver enough of them even normally, he said.
When drivers show documents to the Polish truckers saying the vehicles are for Ukraine’s military, “it does not have a significant impact on the protesters,” Poberzhniak said.
“We must understand that during wartime, supply is needed on a daily basis in all directions,” he said.
The protesters say they're not blocking aid to aid to Ukraine, but the reality is that they are. The only reason to block humanitarian and military aid is because it's in Russia's interest for them to be doing so.
Scratch a Polish trucker, find a Russian useful idiot.
But to be fair, I shouldn't be so hard on Polish truckers. We have a bunch of Putinite congressmen and senators who are, in essence, doing Russia's bidding, whther they will admit to it or not.
It's kind of funny, in a sad way. Republicans were once wary of Russia, but the Russians have given a lot of money to the TOFF's companies and now, because it's in the TOFF's interest, the GOP is backing Russia, lock, stock and barrel.
Xi Jinping is probably kicking his own ass that China didn't invest in the Trump companies.
Before I retired, there was talk in the trucking world about bringing murica to it's knees with a nationwide work stoppage in support of the TOFF. Amazingly, it never went anywhere.
ReplyDeleteBut you can't get two truckers to agree if it's partly cloudy or partly sunny so that might have something to do with it.
I grew up with "Better Dead than Red", so this is all quite a change for me. I can't quite see how it happened but it must have been the money. And I thought the Ruble was a worthless currency. I see now some value it immensely.
ReplyDeletew3ski
It's always hard to say whether there is money crossing hands or just agent provocateurs from Russia causing this. Since the Russian presence in Poland has never completely disappeared it would be fairly easy for Putin to keep a whispering campaign going there. And all countries will have right wingers ready to listen and be influenced with no money going their way. Look what we have here in right wing media that just stokes faux outrage with no actual gain for those that listen and believe what they hear. Those that blame the "others" for their lack of the success in life they think they are entitled to, are easy to influence.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I get lost:
ReplyDeletePoland and South Korea plan to hold joint military exercises in Poland soon to show the effectiveness of Korean equipment in the Polish armed forces, defense ministers for the two countries said Thursday.
Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak and South Korea’s Defense Minister Lee Jong-Sup held talks in Warsaw on security and support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s aggression, as well as on further cooperation in the armaments sector.
Blaszczak said that a joint exercise called Autumn Fire would soon be held by Poland’s armed forces, using recently purchased South Korean armaments. He also said that steps are being taken to allow for some of the equipment made in Korea to be produced in Poland.
Poland is purchasing tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment from South Korea as it upgrades its defense potential with concern rising because of the war in neighboring Ukraine.
https://apnews.com/article/poland-south-korea-security-ukraine-war-armaments-f7a14770a3ad88ff5ea9e9243f86f174
Poland intends to have more tanks than all of the Leopards in the EU. What intentions do they have?
I think the Poles have been paying attention to the revanchist statements of Russian officials. The Russians have not been quiet about desiring to "restore" the Russian empire, including parts of Poland. The Poles want to make that costly.
ReplyDeleteThey are aware of the truth of the old saying: Scratch a Russian, find a Tartar.
But still, in 1939, the largest and best-armed tank force was French. That didn't work out very well for them. But on the other side of that coin, the Russian army has shown that it's not very good.
It's not the arrow or the bow, it's the archer.